> as lemmas

b. Tracts for the Times: the title of a series of pamphlets on theological and ecclesiastical topics (known also as the Oxford Tracts, or simply the Tracts) started by J. H. Newman, and published at Oxford 1833–1841, on the doctrines of which the Tractarian movement was based; also used in singular with lower-case initials, of any literary work put out to meet a particular need of the times. The earlier of these were, in accordance with their title, brief pamphlets; but some of the later, e.g. that of Pusey on Baptism, were extended treatises, tracts in sense 2. The aim of the series was ‘to arrest the advance of Liberalism in religious thought, and to revive’ what the writers held to be ‘the true conception of the relation of the Church of England to the Catholic Church at large’ ( Churchman's Guide). The last Tract, No. 90, by J. H. Newman, ‘On Certain Passages in the XXXIX Articles’, ‘called forth a storm of reprobation; at the instance of Four Tutors, the Heads of the Oxford Colleges pronounced censure upon the author’, and at the request of the Bishop of Oxford the publication of the Tracts ceased. In the sequel, many who sympathized with the teaching of the Tracts (including at length Newman himself) seceded to the Church of Rome.